


henry week day 2: favorite ship

by Lionsmane121



Category: Fire Emblem: Kakusei | Fire Emblem: Awakening
Genre: Happy Ending, M/M, Suicide mention, they live together and everything's okay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-09
Updated: 2020-11-09
Packaged: 2021-03-09 09:20:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,455
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27468598
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lionsmane121/pseuds/Lionsmane121
Summary: “I’m going to work hard. Now that the war is over, I have more time than ever to practice and get better. I’m going to get really strong, Henry, and then I’m going to go home and make my parents proud.”
Relationships: Henry/Licht | Ricken
Comments: 1
Kudos: 13





	henry week day 2: favorite ship

The sun was setting on the horizon, its light being extinguished and replaced with the warm glow of a campfire. Little flames flicked and flittered about, hugging the logs piled in the center, kicking ashes into the sky. Ricken rubbed his cold hands together before holding them over the rising heat of the fire, in his attempt to stay warm. Henry sat beside him, hands as cold as death, but making no move to warm up at all. 

“It sure was nice of Frederick to whip up this fire!” Henry exclaimed.   
  
“Yeah, he sure does have a knack for this kind of thing.” Ricken replied with a soft smile. He looked across the clearing to see Frederick still gathering firewood, to keep it going through the night. Ricken aspired to be that diligent. 

“But I could have done it faster if I used my elfire tome.”   
  
“Henry, no… not everyone loves forest fires as much as you do.”

“D’awww.”

“Besides, some things are better done with hard work and perseverance.” Ricken looked back at Frederick, who was chopping wood now, hardly breaking a sweat. There was a reason he was Chrom’s right hand man; he didn’t know a single spell and it made no difference. It was his endlessly hardworking and unbreakable spirit that made him so valuable to the team.

Ricken wanted to be like that. He would be a powerful wizard one day, that much he knew, but if he was going to be held in royal esteem, he was going to need massive willpower… and that meant no shortcuts. He was determined to double down on his studies, but to build up his other skills as well. As so, he took note of Frederick; the way he worked, the way he fought, the way he moved. He was going to be like him. He was going to do things the hard way.

Ricken got up and started throwing sticks into the pit. One by one, they started to pile up, and the flames climbed upwards. 

“I’m going to work hard. Now that the war is over, I have more time than ever to practice and get better. I’m going to get really strong, Henry, and then I’m going to go home and make my parents proud.” He declared. The fire roared. 

Henry looked at him, a smile plastered on his face, but he remained silent. He had nothing to say. 

“Let’s go gather more sticks. There’s no more small ones.” Ricken said. He clapped his hands together, knocking off any loose dirt and bark before heading towards the treeline. Henry followed behind him, crows perched on tree branches now flying down to meet the two of them. Henry held out a finger and a small crow landed on it, a tiny stick held between its beak.

“Henry, you really shouldn’t make your crows do this for you. You’ll get stronger if you do it on your own.” Ricken admonished.

Petting the crow, he replied.

“Oh, I didn’t make them do anything. They do what they want. They just follow me, is all.” Nevertheless, Henry took the stick from the creature’s beak and let it fly away. Ricken decided to let it slide, seeing as how Henry was now bending over and picking up sticks of his own. 

“Well, I guess a little teamwork never hurt anybody…”

They continued on in silence for a moment, just the sound of them rustling through dead leaves and old pine needles. It smelled earthy but fresh, and light of the golden hour filtered through the leaves, dappling the ground. It was kind of nice, Ricken thought, glancing at little mushrooms clinging to a half rotted log. Kind of pleasant, like a fairytale. 

“Hey, wouldn’t it be cool if I found a dead animal out here?” Henry let out with a giggle. “I like bones and all, but i think meaty carcasses are the best!”

Ricken’s nose scrunched at the thought. He probably likes them rotten too. Oh well, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, he supposed. He tried to pay no more attention to the thought as he gathered branches, but was soon brought out of his focus. 

“Hey, check this out!” Henry called to the younger mage. Ricken trotted over to where Henry was crouching. He was squatted in front of a large, flat rock. Henry took it by the edge and peeled it back, revealing several long nightcrawlers squirming beneath. 

“Ewww! Henry that’s gross, put it back!!” 

“Not a fan of worms, huh? Whatever, your loss. Nyaha!” He set the stone back in place and stood up, brushing off his knees. “They’re better in corpses anyways.” 

“They’re perfectly fine where they are, thank you! Now can we please finish this before the sun sets completely?”

“Nyaha, sure thing boss!” Henry nodded and wandered off, stopping to pick up stray sticks on his way. 

Ricken closed his eyes in a sigh of relief. They really needed to finish up before night fell, lest they get lost in the woods… though Henry probably wasn’t unused to it. Poor thing… for his strange demeanor, he still evoked a sense of pity in Ricken.

Here he was, trying to build up his survival skills while Henry had mastered everything already, at a younger age than Ricken to boot. Maybe he needed to be less hard on him. 

“Henry, wait…” Ricken called out, speeding up to catch up with Henry. His boots crunched on uncollected sticks, snapping them in half as he jogged. Henry turned around with a surprised look on his face, which quickly melted into a gentle smile, soft and genuine. Ricken slowed to a stop at the wizard’s side. “Let’s go together, yeah?” he offered breathlessly. 

“Sure thing, boss.” 

The two of them walked.

…

Ricken noticed Henry’s collection was smaller than his. He didn’t seem to be giving a great amount of attention to the task at hand; his eyes often drifted upwards towards the trees, and he spent more time throwing sticks for the crows to fetch than actually picking them up. Well, at least he was having fun. Or at least Ricken thought he was having fun. 

Upon closer inspection, Henry seemed the slightest bit wistful in his actions. Or maybe he wasn’t, it was hard to tell with him sometimes. 

So he asked. 

“Henry?”

Henry seemed jostled for a moment, his eyes ripped away from the skies. “Hm?”

“Do you actually like collecting firewood?” Maybe ‘like’ was a poor choice of words. This was supposed to be hard work, after all. Grinding down on them, sharpening their willpower. 

Henry’s eyes crinkled with a smile. “Not really.”

“Then why did you come?” Ricken asked, overcome with curiosity.

“Because I like spending time with you.” Henry stated bluntly. Ricken blushed. Did he really mean that?

“And it might be the last time I ever see you.” He looked at him sadly. “Y’know, with the war ending and all.” 

“Oh yeah, that’s right…” Ricken mumbled. Without the war, they’d have no excuse to see each other anymore. 

“Well, what are your plans after the war? Once we reach Ylisse, I mean.” 

Neither of them had taken a wife, unlike pretty much everyone else in the Shepherds. No wives to come home to, no children. Ricken had a place to return to after the war, but he realized now that his companion wasn’t as fortunate. 

“I don’t have any.” Henry replied. That was an outright lie. He knew exactly the fate that awaited him at the end of his journey. A heavy truth, one that would never squeeze past his toothy grin. 

He had nowhere to go, so, in the darkest hours of the night, when he had naught but his own company, he would take his life. He wasn’t sure exactly how yet, but that’s what he had spent the day pondering. He supposed he had the rest of his life to figure it out. 

“Well... “ Ricken interrupted his thoughts. “What if you come over to my place for dinner? You could meet my parents, and help me show them how much I learned in my time here.” 

Henry perked. 

“We could even have a sleepover, you and me. See, we have this spare mattress that hasn’t been used in a while, and I mean, you could help me train in the morning so I’ll become the best wizard in the world!” 

Henry laughed. 

“Sure, if you think you can handle my scary stories at night.”

Ricken sputtered, “H-hey! I’m not a little kid anymore. Scary stories don’t scare me.”

Henry smirked. “BOO!”

“AH!” Ricken jumped. “Hey! That’s not funny!! Don’t do that again.” 

But Henry was laughing. Deeply, and sincerely. 

“Sure thing, boss.”


End file.
